The Persecution Of Christians In Morsi’s Egypt Is Now Serious. So, Will Obama Use His Billion Dollar Subsidy In Their Defense? Don’t Hold Your Breath

A man weeps over the coffin of a Copt killed in clashes in Cairo last year (AP)

I open by drawing your attention to the shocking story
(one among an increasing number of examples of the growing oppression
of Coptic Christians under Egypt’s brand-new Islamist dictatorship) of
Nadia Mohamed Ali, who was brought up as a Christian, and converted to
Islam when she married a Muslim, 23 years ago. He later died, and his
widow decided to return to her Christian faith, together with her
children. She registered as such under the Mubarak regime, and applied
for and received new identity cards containing this information, between
2004 and 2006. When her re-conversion to her old faith emerged under
the Morsi regime, Nadia was sentenced to fifteen years in prison: so too were her seven children; even the clerks who processed the identity cards were imprisoned.

In
the article where you may read about this (link above), Benjamin
Weinthal draws attention to an interesting question, posed by one Jordan
Sekulow, who runs something called the American Center for Law and
Justice. “Now that Sharia law has become an integral part of Egypt’s
new constitution, Christians in that country are at greater risk than
ever,” comments Sekulow of the imprisonment of Nadia Mohamed Ali and
her children. “This is another tragic case that underscores the growing
problem of religious intolerance in the Muslim world. To impose a prison
sentence for a family because of their Christian faith sadly reveals
the true agenda of this new government: Egypt has no respect for
international law or religious liberty.”

All, I fear, increasingly
evident, as Morsi’s real agenda unfolds before the Western world’s
horrified gaze, causing many to wonder if Egypt really wasn’t a lot
better off under the tender mercies of Hosni Mubarak. Morsi has refused
to take any action against the rising violence against the Copts (10 per
cent, don’t forget, of Egypt’s population). In August, the Christian
community in a place called Dahshour (some 100 families) was forced to
flee after their Muslim neighbours violently attacked their homes and
property. Morsi simply said, when asked, that their expulsion and the
violence against them had been “blown out of proportion”. He has done
nothing to contain the violence encouraged by radical Salafi preachers –
who have of course formed an alliance with Morsi and the Muslim
Brotherhood – who called for Muslims to “shun” Christians during
Christmas: not, we may be sure, a simple matter of ignoring them.

So,
what, it might be wondered, will President Obama say about all this?
Morsi is due to meet the President, possibly in March. Sekulow thinks
that the US State Department should play “more of a role in discouraging
this kind of persecution. The US should not be an idle bystander. The
US provides more than $1 billion to Egypt each year. The State
Department should speak out forcefully against this kind of religious
persecution in Egypt.”

But will it? Will President Obama use that
billion dollars (which he will add, don’t forget, to America’s
multi-trillion dollar deficit) to bring pressure on Morsi to protect his
Christian minority? For the answer to that, I refer you to a very interesting piece
by Michael Yussuf, born an Egyptian Copt and now an American citizen,
who opens with a simple question: “Why doesn’t President Obama – who
claims to be a Christian – ever defend the cause of the harassed and
persecuted Christians around the world?”

According to Yussuf, it’s
because he prefers Islamist dictatorships to secular ones. He was quick
to call on Mubarak to resign. Morsi’s dictatorship is just as corrupt:
but, says Yussuf, “that is cultural; the increase — not decrease — in
corruption under the Islamic dictator who replaced Mubarak has proven
that.” He points out that Rashid Khalidii, a Hamas supporter and former
PLO advisor, is an old Chicago friend of Obama’s, and that the president
also studied under and maintained a relationship with Edward Said, who
served as a member of the Palestine National Council and worked with
Yasser Arafat.

Morsi and Obama, says Yussuf (who really
doesn’t like Obama), “both love to hear themselves talk. Not just any
talk, but speeches that support ideas that are the opposite of what they
actually do. When they give a speech, knowledgeable people in both
countries look at each other and ask, “What did he just say?” For both
of them, speeches are all about the art of composition – words, mere
words. They speak out of both sides of their mouths.”

All of that
is interesting, and some of it may even be valid. But one thing is
absolutely certain. “The Christians being killed in Egypt, Syria,
Pakistan, and Nigeria”, as Yussuf says, “don’t have an advocate in the
White House, but they do have one in Heaven. That is the only place they
need to look for help.” More to the point, it’s the only place they can
look. Certainly Obama will not help them. And he’ll carry on
subsidising the Islamist dictator Morsi to the tune of a billion a year.
What are we to make of that?

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